Monday, May 25, 2009

Dine with Our Detectives - Let’s Do Breakfast

Today is the start of our week of Dining with Our Detectives. Each day, we’ll feature a dish or dishes either drawn from our stories or typical of our characters. We hope you’ll find some recipes to try. As a bonus, at the end of the week, we’ll draw a name from among all of you who comment, and the winner will receive a nice bundle of our books.

If you’ve read any of The Flower Shop Mysteries, you know that at Bloomers, Abby’s flower shop, Monday morning breakfast is a tradition, so what better way to start off our week than with an authentic Bloomers breakfast?

Abby’s assistant, Lottie Domkowski, a Kentucky gal, will share her special egg skillet recipe, while Grace Bingham, Abby’s British assistant who runs the coffee-and-tea parlor in the shop, will share one of her scone recipes, which are always served in the coffee-and-tea parlor side of Abby’s shop. Ladies, take it away.

From Grace: Having a scone spread with clotted cream or jam and a cup of tea is a lovely way to start the day. Scones can be made with a variety of dried or fresh fruit such as currants, raisins, blueberries, or chopped nuts like pecans. I will share a very traditional yet simple recipe with you and let you decide what to put in it.

Coat bottom of heavy skillet lightly with olive oil. Heat on medium low. Break eggs into a bowl and whip until well mixed. Pour into skillet, turn heat to low. Sprinkle in cheese crumbles. Salt and pepper lightly. If you have any leftover veggies, such as asparagus spears, spinach, tomatoes, or cooked onion, chop ‘em into fine pieces and toss ‘em in. The more the merrier. As eggs cook, lift edges with spatula to let uncooked egg run underneath. When the middle is set and the bottom is starting to brown, slide onto a big plate, fold in half, cut into wedges and -- down the hatch!